This is the chronicles of the Howdyschell family. The founding Torchbearer, Heidi Howdyschell, invites you along to witness the generations of the Howdyschell family as they struggle along with only one person who knows how to do anything at all; the Torchbearer of each generation.

Blog Archive

About Me

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Generation 2 - Harry's Reign

Title: Generation 2- Harry's Reign

Ahhh....here we are again, visiting with the Howdyschells. In the last entry the Player managed to keep everyone alive. Sometimes not an easy task. "NOOOOoooo! Don't eat that food with flies all over it! Hey, get away from that broken computer!" But, all the Howdyschells survived, and Harry left for college leaving behind his parents Heidi and Remington, and his brother Harvey. So, lets pick up the story with Harry's college life.

Harry automatically entered the ISBI program, 'cause after all, his mom had done it. He settled into the little five room dorm at LaFiesta Tech with his dorm mate, Jake Widow. Jake was going to be instrumental in throwing dorm cash over Harry's way, not that he really needed it. Heidi made plenty of money during her reign as Torchbearer. The money making scheme was just for fun. But, onward. You notice I say "Jake was GOING to be instrumental..." Well. Yes, past tense. Jake really didn't get to spend very much time at LaFiesta Tech. You will find out why in a moment.

But, his first night there, he went to the 50's diner downtown looking for Mrs. Right. He found her, all right, as you can see by the pic above. During 'scope room' Harry found Wendie from The Opposites Challenge but on the other hand he thought Autumn was absolutely hot! That is good, because Wendie is happily married to Joe Boxer. Let's take note of something else here. Didn't Harry's mom Heidi have an affinity for bowling shirts? Apparently Harry is having a mommy complex because Autumn is wearing a bowling shirt too.

It wasn't long before Autumn was visiting Harry at his dorm to keep him in platinum, if you know what I mean. With Heidi it was constantly making new friends, with Harry it was woo-hoo....being a fortune Sim, the wants didn't roll up with things that could be immediately filled, or had a big aspiration pay off. They had plenty of dream dates during Harry's 3 day career in Uni. Yep, that is all he lasted. The day came to go to finals. Jake went, and came back. Harry left around midnight to to take the test....was gone until the wee hours. So ok. About 2 hours into the final, Tech decides Harry is a deadbeat. "It is high time Harry return to the real world." That is the message waiting for him when he got back from finals. When Harry hit dorm property, he grew up to adult, and the cab came and collected him to take him back to Challengeville. Buh-bye!

As far as the ISBI program was concerned, not having a college degree was no biggie. However, Harry didn't get those college years under his belt to get the time to make friends for future job promotions. So, that meant that Harry was gonna have to ride on Heidi' coatails with friendship points as long as he could, until he had a chance to make his own friends back home, plus look after everybody. After all, Harry was now the Only Sim Who Knew Anything At All. The first day home, Harry asked Autumn if she wanted to shack up with him and his mom and dad, and she thought that was the best offer she had gotten in a long time. She moved her junk right in bringing $4,000 simoleons with her, and Harry in turn put a wedding ring on her finger. Turns out, Autumn had a pretty good job, in the culinary field.

See that? That is the uniform for the Sous Chef. However, the Player doesn't have a clue about Autumn's skills. So it will be trial and error for Harry to find out what she needs to get her promotions to celebrity chef...plus makin' sure Harvey gets his studying in for school. The Player didn't keep track, but figures it won't be long before Harvey the 'spare hier' grows up. Therefore, Harry and Autumn decide to put off having children for a while, wants to wait for Harvey to move out so they can have his bedroom for the baby. Plus, Harry has his own wants. He wants to be the Chief of Staff at Challengeville Medical Center. Hrumph. They would be crazy to hire a doctor with no college degree! Harry, old man, looks like you have your hands full!

It wasn't long before stress set in and Autumn was lettin' everyone in the household know who the Queen Bee now was. "Looky here! I am in charge now! You hear me? You do what I say, when I say it. Is that understood?" Poor Heidi! Not only did she suddenly lose all her where-with-all, but now she had a bossy daughter-in-law in the house. Other things started happening too! The stress was horrible on Remington.

Remington felt as though he was walkin' around in a daze. Heidi suddenly didn't want to woo-hoo anymore and barely gave him the time of day. After a few days his boy Harvey left for University, giving him one less person to talk to. Heidi's main problem seemed to be keeping clean. She constantly had green mist around her armpits, and an occasional housefly would accompany her around the house. Remember, Heidi had zero neat points. Well, at least she had company! Maybe Remington could take lessons from that!

Well, Remington didn't have to suffer long. A few days after Autumn moved in, Ol' Rem moved out, permanently. The Player guesses Remington was around 64 or 65. Here are his death insurance stats:

Heidi - $5,000Harry - $1625Harvey - $2300Hermione - $306

As you can see, Heidi and Remington's relationship so severly declined after Harry became Torchbearer, that Heidi only recieved $5,000 in insurance money rather than the usual $20,000. Oh, who is Hermione? She is Harry and Autumn's daughter. See Autumn's preggo pic? Yep, she is sleepin'. That is another thing...Harry had one tough time bossin' the bossy Autumn around to keep her health up for the sake of the baby. Sometimes she just thought she knew better. But, it was so touch and go, Harry and Autumn decided on just one child. At last, the little tyke was born, and looked rather odd.

Hmmm black hair and blonde eyebrows. The Player assumes this child is supposed to be a blonde because her grandma Heidi had 'custom hair'. The Player further assumes the creator of the custom hair must have forgotten to deal with the eyebrows. Either that, or Heidi also had custom eyebrows, so the game had to put something on the kids' face. Thus, blonde eyebrows. The Player further decides that as soon as Hermione grows up to child, a visit to the mirror will be in order.

Now then, since Harry and Autumn decided on only one child, Harry had to have a back up plan in case something happened to Hermione, and Autumn was unable to have anymore kids. So, Harry went to town and found himself another squeeze. Sorry, no pics, Harry didn't want any incriminating evidence laying around for Autumn to find. But for those of you who shop Downtown, it is the chick with the blonde braids and the white cowboy hat. Harry has two bolts with her.

Harry eventually gets his promotion to Chief of Staff. He was so happy, he went straight to perm plat. No more of this constantly having to take care of his needs and makin' sure everybody in the house has eaten. He began to train Hermione on the chocolate machine so she would be able to cook for herself when she grew up to teen. He also trained Autumn up to max skills on the chocolate machine and the lie detector for promotion to Celebrity Chef. But alas, the promotion didn't come.

Remember, all Remington needed as a dream date to get into plat before going to work for promotions. Well, with Autumn the Fortune Sim it hasn't been easy. Dating didn't work. So, the Player decided that buying stuff would probably do it. Yup, the day the Player bought Autumn a bowling alley, she went straight to plat. Now one might think...gee...it won't be long before you have everything! Well, the Player knew Autumn could keep any toys for 24 sim hours, then the Player would take it away without sacrificing any aspriation points for Autumn. After another 24 sim hours, Autumn would roll the want again. So, the Player began rotating the bowling alley and the DJ booth to keep Autumn in plat. However she was only able to get one promotion, to Executive Chef. So, now the Player assumes Autumn needs logic points. So she and Harry go to the chess board. She gains two points. Hopefully this will be enough to push Autumn to Celebrity Chef. The Player has also assumed getting Autumn to permanent plat is near impossible, so just getting her to Celebrity Chef will be enough.

See! Look at me! This is my penguin imitation!

In the mean time, Hermione had grown to be a very becoming child. She was pretty much left on her own in the evenings after Harry helped her with her homework. She and her grandma Heidi became very close since Heidi and Autumn didn't get along. Looks like Hermione was the only one left for Heidi to talk to. On any given evening, Heidi and Hermione would get into intense games of red hands. Harry had his hands full training Autumn and keeping food out on the counters. By now, so much time had passed Harry had to begin gettin' on the horn every night to make friends. Heidi's friends had all turned their backs on her since she never called them anymore, and barely said two words to them when they called her. After making Chief of Staff, Harry decided it wasn't what it cracked up to be, and got a job in business. Now he wanted to be a buisness tycoon.

Finally Heidi's time to party with Grim came. Hermione had grown to teen, and became a Fortune Sim like her mom and dad. Heidi accepted her place at Grim's side with grace. She knew it was time. Hermione took it very hard. Autumn barely noticed she was gone. In order to cheer everyone up Harry had the kitchen remodeled. After all, both of his parents died in that room. Heidi's insurance death stats:

Her death benefited 6 people. Here is five of them. We can only guess who the 6th person was.

It seems like Heidi was more generous with her life insurance than Remington was.

What? *narrator listens to a whisper in her hear* You want to say something? Oh! *ahem* The Player wishes me to convey her delight in the new mission style furniture and wall coverings that came with Open For Business. The kitchen in the Howdyschell house now looks great!

Now it was only a matter of time. Harry knew he would be giving up the Torch to Hermione. He and Autumn have aged to elderhood. He had become a business tycoon, and wrapped up a tidy bundle. He wants to make $100,000 simoleons but the Player will not know if he ever reaches that goal. Now he is working in the science field and has become a mad scientist. Autum still has not reached Celebrity Chef, but perhaps Hermione will be able to help her with that.

The Torch Has Passed

The Player finally gets the first birthday notification for Hermione. Off to Uni she goes! Let's hope she can stay longer than one semester. The date for the next update is unannounced right now. When it is posted it will be announced in the TS2Challenges Yahoo Group. The Player wants to buy some time to play with the new expansion pack, Open For Business.

Point Totals: 19 total. Added one Torcholder, Harry had three jobs, so that added 3 to top of career, and added 3 to $100,000. The house has cash on hand $345,000. Doesn't look like a whole lot of cash was added during Harry's reign. Well, Autumn lost $30,000 in a bad business decision, Harry remodeled the kitchen, and he wasn't able to access the high paying Uni jobs. Didn't get Hermione's stats...will post next time. She did get three scholarships.... 1) Tsang Footwork Award 2) SimCity Scholar's Grant and 3) Hogan Award for Athletics. She lacked one cooking skill point to get the Culinary Arts Scholarship.

4 comments:

KeyKel69
said...

As usual, love your blogs. I don't think I could do this challenge, waaaaaaaaay to much of managing everybody. Don't let OFB be TOO entertaining.. Prosperity Falls calls you back... "Anthonians must procreate...." I'll even spell it right one of these days.. :-)